A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between long non-coding RNA polymorphisms and cancer risk

It has been suggested that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) gene polymorphisms are associated with cancer risk. In this article, we conducted a systematic review related to studies on the association between lncRNA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the overall risk of cancer. A total 17 SNPs in four common lncRNA genes were included in the meta-analysis. In the lncRNA H19, the rs2735971 A/G, rs2839698C/T, and rs3024270 G/C polymorphisms, but not rs217727C/T, were correlated with overall cancer risk. The results also suggested that other SNPs were correlated with overall cancer risk, namely, two in HOTAIR (HOX transcript antisense RNA: rs920778C/T and rs7958904 G/C) and two in PRNCR1 (rs1016343C/T and rs16901946 A/G). No association was found between the three ZNRD1-AS1 (ZNRD1 antisense RNA 1) SNPs and the risk of cancer. In summary, our findings suggest that quite a few studied lncRNA SNPs are associated with overall cancer risk; therefore, they are potential predictive biomarkers for the risk of cancer. Moreover, other lncRNA SNPs investigated were also relevant to cancer but studies on them are limited, and they were also briefly reviewed as candidate cancer markers.